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Art in Action: An Analysis of Political Graffiti in Washington D.C.

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Mitzen L.

Language, Discourse & Society

2019

vol. 7

issue 2

123-155

This study examines how graffiti, both the symbolic artifact itself and the act of producing graffiti, is used as a means of navigating power dynamics via counter-hegemonic political expression. Because social phenomena may only be understood in relation to the historic materialistic context in which it occurs, this study will focus on graffiti specifically within the city of Washington D.C. Sixteen randomly selected D.C. neighborhoods located in Wards 1, 2 and 8 were surveyed for graffiti deemed to be political. Once documented and coded, a content analysis was conducted to detect themes in how graffiti operates politically, focusing on both the content of the graffiti as well as the social context in which it existed. With a sample size of over 800, the sheer prevalence of political graffiti supports the assertion that graffiti does function in this capacity. By conducting such a study as this, graffiti was shown to be a highly complex social phenomenon; one that plays a central role in the placemaking process of the public sphere, issues of criminality and political legitimacy, and the autonomy of a community to express itself politically. These results are discussed in terms of how they adhere to a Marxian theoretical framework set forth by the work of Antonio Gramsci ([1935] 1989), Walter Benjamin (1936), Louis Althusser (1971), and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (1990; 1993).

Religious discourses and politics in Brazil: The conservative evangelical parliamentary front

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Zaluar A., Gonçalves R. B.

Language, Discourse & Society

2019

vol. 7

issue 2

107-122

The arguments embraced here are those that examine the discourses of parliamentarians and their proposals that represent Evangelical fundamentalism with the support of conservatism of a moral and religious character, no longer exclusive to the right-wing Catholics, as pointed out in the literature of Political Science. The interpretation of religious politicians’ speeches is as legitimate and necessary as the discussion of the reverse of secularization and the increasing presence of religion in politics. Secularity is only an issue in Brazilian politics nowadays because of the conflict between conservative evangelical parliamentarians and Brazilian scientists. The latter are representatives of the scientific theories of evolutionism and proponents of scientific research on stem cells and embryos, considered as early as the beginning of the 20th century as threats to Christian civilization according to the Bible. The former, some of them propagators of the Bible, repeat this argument in public discourse, a symptom of fundamentalism as defined by Marsden. It discusses then the dispute between politics of morality and the process of informalization and permissiveness that have gained much widespread support of the young population since the 1960s. This dispute is still going on in Brazil, a country that has aroused the interest of missionaries because of its customs and non-Christian religions, especially Afro-Brazilians. The political crisis and the flaws of a fragmented public security policy has also called attention to the issues relative to the possession and use of guns as well as the role of repressive policies considered by the fundamentalist members of a divided Evangelical Front as the only way to stop violence and crime. This discourse is in flagrant contradiction with their defense of life in pregnancies.

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2 Language, Discourse & Society

1 Gonçalves R. B.

1 Mitzen L.

1 Zaluar A.

2 2019

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Art in Action: An Analysis of Political Graffiti in Washington D.C.

Religious discourses and politics in Brazil: The conservative evangelical parliamentary front